Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 24 January 2017
227. Deputy Jim O'Callaghan asked the Minister for Education and Skills if children with SNAs in a school (details supplied) are given their allocated time; the reason some children are not receiving the time with SNAs that they are allocated; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [3157/17]
View answerThe National Council for Special Education (NCSE) is responsible, through its network of local Special Educational Needs Organisers (SENOs), for allocating Special Needs Assistants (SNAs) to schools to support children with special educational needs. The NCSE operates within my Department's criteria in allocating such support, as set out in my Department's Circular 0030/2014.
The Special Needs Assistant (SNA) scheme is designed to provide schools with additional adult support staff who can assist children with special educational needs who also have additional and significant care needs. Such support is provided in order to facilitate the attendance of those pupils at school and also to minimise disruption to class or teaching time for the pupils concerned, or for their peers, and with a view to developing their independent living skills. SNA support is allocated to schools to support pupils based on their assessed care needs, as opposed to being allocated on the basis of a particular disability diagnosis.
SNA allocations are accordingly not made to individual children, but are made to schools to support the care needs of children with assessed special educational needs in the school.
The consideration of professional reports is an integral part of determining the extent of supports to be provided for pupils with special educational needs. In making allocations to schools, the NCSE takes into account the assessed individual needs of all children with identified needs in the school.
A school's allocation of SNA support can change from year to year and may be increased or decreased as students who qualify for SNA support enrol or leave a school. New students with care needs may, or may not, enrol to replace students who have left, for example, or SNA allocations may be decreased where a child's care needs have diminished over time.
The deployment of SNAs within schools is then a matter for the individual Principal/Board of Management. Department Circular 0030/2014 provides substantial guidance on the deployment and utilisation of SNAs within schools. SNAs should be deployed by the school in a manner which best meets the care support requirements of the children enrolled in the school for whom SNA support has been allocated. It is a matter for schools to allocate support as required, and on the basis of individual need, which allows schools flexibility in how the SNA support is utilised.
The NCSE has published details of SNA allocations to schools for 2016 on its website: http://ncse.ie/statistics.
